Children and World War Two - History Learning Site Home » World War Two » Children and World War Two Children and World War Two Citation: C N Trueman "Children and World War Two" historylearningsite.co.uk. The History Learning Site, 6 Mar 2015. 16 Aug 2016. Children were massively affected by World War Two . Nearly two million children were evacuated from their homes at the start of World War Two; children had to endure rationing , gas mask lessons, living with strangers etc. Children accounted for one in ten of the deaths during the Blitz of London from 1940 to 1941 . World War Two was the first war when Britain itself was the target of frequent attacks by the enemy. With the success of the Battle of Britain and the suspension of ‘ Operation Sealion ’, the only way Germany could get at mainland Britain was to bomb it. This occurred during the Blitz and seemed to reinforce the government’s decision to introduce evacuation (what the government of the time described as “the biggest exodus since Moses”) at the start of the war.

On August 31st, 1939, the government issued the order “Evacuate Forthwith” and ‘Operation Pied Piper’ was started the very next day. The impact of evacuation on children depended to an extent on which social strata you were in at the time. Parents who had access to money invariably made their own arrangements. Children at private schools based in the cities tended to move out to manor houses in the countryside where children at that school could be, in the main, kept together. But 1.9 million children gathered at rail stations in early September not knowing where they were going nor if they would be split from brothers and sisters who had gathered with them. ‘Operation Pied Piper’ was a huge undertaking. Six cities had been deemed vulnerable to German bombing – memories of Guernica were still fresh – and in London alone there were 1,589 assembly points for children to gather at before they were moved on. Those children who were evacuated were given a stamped postcard to send from their billet address to inform their parents where they were. ‘Operation Pied Piper’ planned to move 3.5 million children in three days.

In the event, the 1.9 million who were evacuated was a remarkable achievement though some children stayed with their parents as evacuation was not compulsory. With such numbers involved, it was to be expected that some children would have a smooth passage to their reception area while some would not. Anglesey expected 625 children to arrive and 2,468 did. Pwllheli, North Wales, was not allocated any evacuees – and 400 turned up. Children already experiencing a stressful situation were put in an even more difficult situation. Elsewhere, children who had been used to being in school in the same class were spilt up. “I have had few worse hours in my life than those I spent watching the school being taken off in drizzling rain and gathering gloom to those unknown villages, knowing I was powerless to do anything about it.”Dorothy King, teacher What impact this had on the children involved was never overly studied at the time as the government simply wanted to herald evacuation as an overwhelming success. That some children continued their education in pubs, church halls or anywhere else there was the space to accommodate them was seen as the accepted face of a requirement that had been foist on the government.

The clash of cultures experienced by many children must have also been difficult. The children from the cities had been tarred by a reputation that was undeserved – but many of those in rural England expected children to be riddled with parasites and to engage in anti-social behaviour. Such was the perception at the time. “I noticed a woman looking at evacuees’ hair and opening their mouths, but one of the helpers said, “They might come from the East End, but they’re children, not animals.” R Baker, evacuee from Bethnal Green. However, many mothers brought their children home during the ‘ Phoney War ’ when it seemed clear that the danger of bombing had been exaggerated. By January 1940 , about 60% of all evacuees had returned to their home. The return of these children was not in the government’s plan. Many schools remained shut in city centres and a social problem occurred that had no obvious cure – so-called ‘dead-end kids’ who were left unsupervised for most of the day as their fathers were away with the military and their mothers were at work in the factories.

It is difficult to know whether this problem was overstated or not but while these children remained in city centres they were a potential casualty of German bombing. London was obviously targeted during the Blitz , but other cities were also badly bombed – Plymouth and Coventry being obvious examples. In London, ‘trekkers’ took their children out of the centre at night (during the Blitz) and went to the nearest open ground that might represent safety. The government did not recognise the existence of ‘trekkers’ as their understandable response to bombing did not fit in with the ‘stiff upper lip’ that the government portrayed in their propaganda films. Whereas the American film ‘Britain can take it’ represented Londoners as people with huge resolve, the reality was different. However, by the end of 1941 , city centres, especially London, became safer. Life for children regained a degree of monotony. Rationing ensured that everyone got their food. Life could never be normal in a wartime situation but the fear of gas attacks had all but gone and the attacks by the Luftwaffe was a memory. Though cinemas were meant to be shut, many opened.

The seeming normality of life on the Home Front was shattered in 1944 when the first of the V1’s landed. Once more, London was targeted and children were victims. The danger faced in London was greatly increased when the V2 attacks started and the casualty figures mirrored those of the Blitz. The attacks by both V1’s and V2’s only ended as the Allies advanced up through Western Europe after the success of D-Day . What damage did the war do to those children who survived it? This is difficult to know as physical damage was visible and could be dealt with but the psychological damage some must have suffered was difficult to measure – even if anybody tried to do this. In the immediate aftermath of VE Day and VJ Day, returning soldiers were given priority and an emphasis was placed on the return of ‘family’. Children and their welfare seemed to come lower down the list of priorities – the return of a father, according to some, would be enough to restore classic family virtues to society. Psychological assessments were far more basic in 1945 and in the immediate years after the war. ‘Pulling yourself together’ and the ubiquitous ‘stiff upper lip’ were frequent solutions to both adult and child problems.

There is also little doubt that the government wanted to portray Britain as a country that had won the war and was harvesting the benefits of it. Fragile family bases did not fit in with this. The above deals solely with children from Britain and not the rest of Europe. Children living under occupation must have lived in a manner few can comprehend unless an individual has been through similar situations. Children in Poland , the Netherlands , Belgium , France etc would all have experienced the terror produced by Blitzkrieg . Occupying troops could be brutal as the children at Oradur-sur-Glane and Lidice found out. Young German boys were used by the Nazi Party in the final days of the Battle of Berlin . What is thought to be the final picture of Hitler was taken when he pinned Iron Crosses onto the uniform of child soldiers in the garden of his bunker in Berlin. The bombs at Hiroshima and Nagasaki killed thousands of children. The crimes committed during the Holocaust involved countless thousands of children. The first experimental ‘gas chambers’ were used on German children who were mentally incapacitated. Joseph Mengele specifically targeted children for his experiments at Auschwitz . “The forgotten victims of World War Two were the children.” Juliet Gardiner.

BBC - History - British History in depth: Evacuees in World War Two - the True Story Evacuees in World War Two - the True Story By David Prest Last updated 2011-02-17 As bombing raids attacking Britain's cities increased during World War Two, thousands of children were uprooted from their families and sent to the safety of the countryside. Many found, however, that life away from home was no picnic. On this page Print this page Operation Pied Piper The evacuation of Britain's cities at the start of World War Two was the biggest and most concentrated mass movement of people in Britain's history. In the first four days of September 1939, nearly 3,000,000 people were transported from towns and cities in danger from enemy bombers to places of safety in the countryside. Most were schoolchildren, who had been labelled like pieces of luggage, separated from their parents and accompanied instead by a small army of guardians - 100,000 teachers.

By any measure it was an astonishing event, a logistical nightmare of co-ordination and control beginning with the terse order to 'Evacuate forthwith,' issued at 11.07am on Thursday, 31 August 1939. Few realised that within a week, a quarter of the population of Britain would have a new address. Talking to evacuees now about the events of those days in 1939 recalls painful memories that have been deeply hidden for 60 years, exposing the trauma of separation and isolation and the tensions of fear and anger. Most were unaware of where they were going, what they would be doing and all were wholly ignorant of when they would be coming back. The fear of air attack from German bombers at the start of hostilities encouraged parents to send their children to safety. There were predictions of 4,000,000 civilian casualties in London alone, and, as early as 1922 - after the air threat from Zeppelins - Lord Balfour had spoken of 'unremitting bombardment of a kind that no other city has ever had to endure'.

The Government had stockpiled coffins, erected masses of barrage balloons and planned, at least in outline, for the mass evacuation of British cities before 1939. But it is now revealed that these plans were hopelessly flawed. In the first place, the estimates of casualties were grossly over-exaggerated and the subsequent Government propaganda caused near panic rather than controlled movement. In addition, the man in charge of evacuation, Sir John Anderson, was a cold, inhuman character with little understanding of the emotional upheaval that might be created by evacuation. Top The day of evacuation For some children used to city life, the countryside proved to be a revelation © Most evacuees have a vivid recall of events on the day of their evacuation. The images are of busy train stations, shouting officials and sobbing mothers. In London, the schoolchildren sang 'The Lambeth Walk'. Elsewhere there were choruses of 'Wish Me Luck as You Wave Me Goodbye'. For most it was 'like going on an adventure': a phrase that is still uppermost in the minds of evacuees 60 years on.

'We marched to Waterloo Station behind our head teacher carrying a banner with our school's name on it,' says James Roffey, founder of the Evacuees Reunion Association. 'We all thought it was a holiday, but the only thing we couldn't work out was why the women and girls were crying.' For the newspapers the evacuation represented an irresistible human story. An upper-class Englishwoman, Mollie Panter-Downes, described the scene in her fortnightly piece for the New Yorker and remarked on the 'cheerful little cockneys who could hardly believe the luck that was sending them to the countryside'. The stereotypical images were already forming in people's minds. Parents gave instructions to their children: 'Don't complain,' 'Grin and bear it,' 'Look after your sister,' 'Write home as soon as you can.' Broadly speaking the four-day official exodus worked surprisingly well. The real problems came in the reception areas where the Government had left arrangements for the children's arrival and care to local authorities, with little more than an injunction to do their best. The result can only be described as a typically British wartime shamble. Hundreds of children arrived in the wrong area with insufficient rations.

And, more worryingly, there were not enough homes in which to put them. Twelve months earlier, the Government had surveyed available housing, but what they had not taken into account was the extent to which middle-class and well-to-do families would be making their own private arrangements. Consequently, those households who had previously offered to take in evacuees were now full. Keeping control of the whole thing became a joyless task. 'The trains were coming in thick and fast,' says Geoffrey Barfoot who had been seconded from the town hall to act as a billeting officer in Weston Super Mare. 'It was soon obvious that we just didn't have the bed space.' Top I'll Take that One As a result of the mismatches, selection was made according to rudimentary principles. Billeting officers simply lined the children up against a wall or on a stage in the village hall, and invited potential hosts to take their pick. Thus the phrase 'I'll take that one' became etched on the memory of our evacuees. Steve Davis, a clinical psychologist specialising in the study of war trauma, says this was the first of many moments that caused upset and humiliation for the evacuees and put their welfare under serious threat.

'It was little more than a paedophile's charter', says Davis, whose work involves counselling former evacuees. For him the current anniversary marks a watershed. 'Surveys show that childhood memories lie dormant for a period of around 60 years and now they are returning to haunt people in a big way.' Understandably perhaps, those with only good evacuations cherish their memories, and are irritated by those who seem only to recall the gloomier side. The unhappiness of others somehow besmirches their own idyllic picture. However, contrasting experiences have stayed with the evacuees and what is left can only be described as the best of times and the worst of times. Rita Glenister, from North London, stayed with a working-class family in Somerset and was treated like a member of the family, given love and affection and secured friendships to last a lifetime. Norma Reeve, from a lowly background in the East End, was taken in by a titled lady with servants and a butler who served Norma her meals. Little things, like going to the pictures, learning to bake bread, walks in the woods and the generosity of those who took evacuated children into their homes, have remained constant in the minds of evacuees.

For many it was a life-enhancing, mind-broadening experience, leaving them with memories they treasure to this day. Others, however, were beaten, mistreated and abused by families who didn't want them and didn't care about them. The painful experience of John Abbot, evacuated from Bristol, reflects the darker side. His rations were stolen by his host family, who enjoyed good food whilst John was given a diet of nothing more than mashed potatoes. He was horsewhipped for speaking out and, with a bruised and bleeding body, was eventually taken in by the police. Then there was Terri McNeil who was locked in a birdcage and left with a chunk of bread and a bowl of water. Of course, it would be wrong to suppose that evacuation under the government scheme was one long misery for most of those involved. Clearly it was only a minority that were ill-treated, but it did happen. The present writer spoke directly to nearly 450 ex-evacuees, and of these 12 per cent say they suffered some sort of mental, physical or specifically sexual abuse, as defined by the children's welfare organisations of today. Naturally, and sadly, deep scars lie just below the surface for that minority.

Saturday, 2 September 1939 No hitch on great adventure Evacuation of schoolchildren from London went without a hitch. The children, smiling and cheerful, left their parents and entrained for unknown destinations in the spirit of going on a great adventure. 'I wish all our passengers were as easy to manage,' a railway official said. 'The children were very well behaved.' At Waterloo, 80 per cent of the normal travellers saw nothing of the schoolchildren. After Earl de la Warr, President of the Board of Education, had toured a number of schools in West London, he said, 'If the arrangements at the other end for receiving the children are as good as at this end, it bodes well for the scheme.' Waiting rooms, turned into first-aid posts at various stations for the children, were rarely if ever used. First school to start Earliest school to start evacuation was Myrdle Street School, Commercial Road, E. Two hundred children, aged from three to 13, assembled before dawn. Each child carried a gas mask, food and change of clothing and bore three labels. 'Don't suck or eat your labels,' the head teacher, Miss DL Herbert, told them.

Freda Skrzypee, nine, who arrived with her parents and brother from Danzig on Sunday was among them. She speaks no English, but has a companion in Ruth Rosenzweig, Jewish refugee from Berlin. 'The Germans have taken away our nationality,' she said, 'But I am happy here.' While waiting to be taken away - they did not know where they were going, except 'to the country for a holiday' - the children had community singing. As dawn was breaking the children marched to Aldgate Metropolitan Station, where they entrained. At the Ben Johnson School, Mile End, E, mothers were allowed into the playground where 300 boys and girls said a bright 'cheerio' to their mothers. Then Mr HC Cawsey told the parents: 'Your children will be safe. Remember Mr Morrison's message and smile!' Saturday, 2 September 1939 And they did smile A teacher cheerily told a father: 'We'll be back in a week. The weather's glorious for a nice holiday.' Organisation was so good that a quarter of an hour after the assembly the children were ready to move.

Not one of the 250 children was late at Mandeville Street School, Lower Clapton. Once inside their buses they talked happily with their parents through the windows. 'Got your comics, Bert?' shouted a fond father. Bert had them all right, with his gas mask. The evacuation went off with remarkable smoothness. Within eleven minutes after the arrival by District Railway at Wimbledon, 500 children from Merton Road School (Southfields) and Wandsworth School were in a main line train station on their way to an undisclosed destination. It was a brave little regiment, marching in step, which left Ashburnham School, Lots Road, Chelsea, for Walham Green Station where they entrained for Wimbledon. One thousand children are being evacuated from the Chelsea area. The dexterity with which the children were shepherded through crowds of morning workers at Waterloo Station was a perfect piece of organisation. Police wearing armlets and LCC school officials saw that an avenue to their platform was kept entirely free for the children. Little tots smiled gleefully and boys whistled and exchanged jokes. One boy, carrying a kitbag over his shoulder in true military style, kept humming to himself as he marched along. 'Cheer up.

Your children are going to have a happy holiday and don't worry.' With these words of cheer Miss Violet Horseburgh, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Health, comforted mothers outside the Vauxhall Central School, Lawn Lane, South Lambeth Road. One little boy at Ealing Broadway Station, where 50,000 children entrained, had a bucket and spade with him. To cheer him up his mother had told him that he was going to the seaside. Actually, she did not know his destination. Ten thousand children left New Cross Gate Southern Station. Mr E Kingston of Vansittart Road, New Cross, who saw two of his children leave on the train said, 'It is the only sensible thing to do. I am not worrying.' Hospital evacuation too, went off smoothly. Along the blue-windowed corridors of Saint Thomas's Hospital, past the carriage which Florence Nightingale used in the Crimea, teams of medical students wheeled patients (who still require medical treatment but are not seriously ill) in their beds to two centres, where they were transferred to stretchers. Two fathers arrived and carried their newly born babies from the wards to the ambulance.

Bernard Cooke (of Cornwall Street, Victoria), proud father of Patrick Joseph, who weighed 9lb, 14oz at his birth a week ago, said: 'I am sorry to lose my wife and boy. It's my first baby, you know, but I think it's wiser that they should go away.' The bed patients - 70 in number - were evacuated from Charing Cross Hospital in an hour. 'Goodbye, nurse. I'll see you soon,' called one of the younger women. 'Of course you will. You will be back next week,' was the nurse's rejoinder. Many babies were among the first batch of patients removed from Guy's hospital. Saturday, 2 September 1939 Evacuation plans going smoothly Great progress has been made with the first part of the Government's evacuation arrangements in England, says a statement issued by the Minister of Health. The statement goes on: 'The railways, road transport organisations, local authorities and teachers and the voluntary workers in the reception areas are all playing their part splendidly.' 'Evacuation will continue.

The time that it will take to complete will vary in different areas.' 'Evacuation of school children will continue in areas where it is not already completed.' 'This will be followed by evacuation of young children accompanied by their mothers or by some other responsible person, expectant mothers, blind and any cripples who have received instructions that they will be moved.' 'By this time all these persons in these special classes in the different areas ought to have been informed by their local authorities where to assemble and the day and time at which to be there.' 'If any of you in these classes are in doubt you should at once make inquiries at your local council office.' 'Arrangements for the first day were limited to those areas for which transport plans have been previously worked out. It has already been possible to extend the arrangements to a few other areas.' 'Evacuation form Grimsby and Cleethorpes will continue on Saturday and Sunday.

Evacuation form Derby will take place on Saturday and Sunday; from Coventry on Sunday and Monday.' 'All persons included in the Government evacuation scheme who are in receipt of State pensions or allowances should take their pension and allowance books with them, even if the book has just expired.' 'They will be able to draw their pensions and allowances from the nearest Post Office if they present the book.' 'Pensioners who at present get their books from a pension officer and not a Post Office, should get from the Post Office in the new area the address of the local Pensions Officer.' As a further precautionary measure the Minister of Health has sent instructions to hospitals in the casualty organisation to send home all patients who are fit to be sent home. Similar arrangements have been made in Scotland. Orders for the transfer of stretcher cases from inner to outer hospitals were issued yesterday. Top About the author David Prest was the producer of 'Evacuation: The True Story', BBC Radio 4's major five-part series presented by Charles Wheeler.

Operation Pied Piper: The Evacuation of English Children During World War II | Defense Media Network Operation Pied Piper: The Evacuation of English Children During World War II By Dwight Jon Zimmerman - December 31, 2011 Children of an eastern suburb of London, who have been made homeless by the random bombs of Nazi night raiders, wait outside the wreckage of what was their home, ca. September 1940. Operation Pied Piper was set up in order to spare children from the experience of being bombed or worse. New Times Paris Bureau Collection, National Archives Sharing Options: Labels: Conflicts & Operations , International Militaries , World War II One of the most, if not the most, emotionally wrenching decisions made by the British government during World War II was its decision to relocate its children out of urban centers to locations where the risk of bombing attacks was low or non-existent. Called Operation Pied Piper, millions of people, most of them children, were shipped to rural areas in Britain as well as overseas to Canada, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and the United States. Almost 3 million people were evacuated during the first four days of the operation, making it the biggest and most concentrated population movement in British history.

“I’ll take that one.” — Evacuee host parent Plans for such a move began during the summer of 1938, in which the country was divided into risk zones identified as “evacuation,” “neutral,” or reception” and lists of available housing were compiled. During the summer of 1939, the London County Council began requisitioning buses and trains. As the prospect of war became more likely, London’s mayor, Herbert Morrison, a Laborite , wanted to begin the evacuation process in August, but was rebuffed by the government led by Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, which was concerned that such a move would cause a general panic. Young British children are evacuated as part of Operation Pied Piper. Ultimately 3.5 million people were relocated as part of the evacuation. Imperial War Museum photo When Germany invaded Poland on Sept. 1, 1939, Morrison was at 10 Downing Street talking to Chamberlain’s aide, Sir Horace Wilson, about evacuating the children.

Wilson protested, “But we’re not at war yet, and we wouldn’t want to do anything to upset delicate negotiations, would we?” In his thick London East End accent, Morrison growled, “Look, ’Orace, go in there and tell Neville this from me: If I don’t get the order to evacuate the children from London this morning, I’m going to give it myself – and tell the papers why I’m doing it. ’Ow will ’is nibs like that?” A half hour later, Morrison had the document. The evacuation began that afternoon. One mother in London, after watching her own two children march off, saw two tots leave a line and rush up to a policemen standing in the middle of the intersection, holding traffic until the children had passed. “Bye-bye, Daddy,” they said. The policeman looked down, smiled, and said, “Now be good, kiddies.” The children then got back in line. As they did so, the mother saw tears rolling down the policeman’s cheeks. In London and other major cities, adults saw long files of children led by teachers or other officials walk toward bus or railroad stations for their journey to different parts of the country.

Each child carried around his neck a small square cardboard box containing a gas mask, and on the lapel of each child’s coat was pinned a name card. Brothers and sisters held each other’s hands “like grim death, and refused to be parted.” One mother in London, after watching her own two children march off, saw two tots leave a line and rush up to a policemen standing in the middle of the intersection, holding traffic until the children had passed. “Bye-bye, Daddy,” they said. The policeman looked down, smiled, and said, “Now be good, kiddies.” The children then got back in line. As they did so, the mother saw tears rolling down the policeman’s cheeks. Poster used by the British government in the London Underground to spread the word about the evacuations of civilians in Britain during World War II. British Ministry of Health poster The first and largest exodus lasted four days. Other smaller evacuations occurred up until September 1944. Ultimately more than 3.5 million people were relocated. Finding homes was often traumatic for the children.

As a rule, billeting officials would line the newly arrived children up against a wall or on a stage in the village hall, and invite potential hosts to take their pick. The phrase, “I’ll take that one” became a statement indelibly etched in countless children’s memories. Corporations and private relief organizations in the United States arranged for thousands of children to stay in the country. Employees of the Hoover vacuum cleaning company in Canton, Ohio, and Eastman Kodak in Rochester, N.Y., volunteered to take children of employees from their British subsidiaries. In New York City, a radio interview of six evacuee children living there was broadcast back to England on Sept. 10, 1940. According to a New York Times article, “Baseball received a vote of approval, although this was qualified when compared with cricket.” Finding homes was often traumatic for the children. As a rule, billeting officials would line the newly arrived children up against a wall or on a stage in the village hall, and invite potential hosts to take their pick. The phrase, “I’ll take that one” became a statement indelibly etched in countless children’s memories.

Given the large numbers and different social classes involved, individual experiences ran the gamut from excellent to terrible. On Dec. 6, 1941, Anna Freud, the daughter of Sigmund Freud, reported the results of a 12-month study she had authorized. Its conclusion was that “separation from their parents is a worse shock for children than a bombing.” In the 2003 BBC Radio 4 documentary, “Evacuation: The True Story,” Steve Davis, a clinical psychologist specializing in the study of war trauma, stated that in the worst cases, “It was little more than a pedophile’s charter.” Though the big children evacuation story occurred in England, it wasn’t the only one. British women and children in Singapore began to be evacuated shortly after Japan launched its attack on the colony . After a harrowing experience on their ship, one group eventually reached Australia in early January 1942. Children evacuees from Bristol carry bags, suitcases and gas masks as they walk off the platform upon their arrival at the Brent Station, London, U.K., ca. 1940. They later continued on to Kingsbridge, U.K. Bristol later suffered severely from Luftwaffe air attacks.

Imperial War Museum photo The return of evacuees to London was approved on June 1945, but some began returning to England as early as 1944. The evacuation was officially ended in March 1946. The return of evacuees to London was approved on June 1945, but some began returning to England as early as 1944. The evacuation was officially ended in March 1946. YouTube features a number of videos about the evacuation. One such video is a mixture of posters, photographs, and Imperial War Museum footage . Another video features a young schoolgirl interviewing her grandmother about her evacuation experience, part of a class project. In it the grandmother states that her host family “was not very nice.” Evacuation During World War Two How do you think the children are feeling in the photo above? What do you think they have packed in their bags? What is evacuation? Evacuation means leaving a place. During the Second World War, many children living in big cities and towns were moved temporarily from their homes to places considered safer, usually out in the countryside. When did evacuations take place in Britain?

The British evacuation began on Friday 1 September 1939. It was called 'Operation Pied Piper'. Between 1939 - 1945 there were three major evacuations in preparation of the German Luftwaffe bombing Britain. The first official evacuations began on September 1 1939, two days before the declaration of war. By January 1940 almost 60% had returned to their homes. A second evacuation effort was started after the Germans had taken over most of France. From June 13 to June 18, 1940, around 100,000 children were evacuated (in many cases re-evacuated). When the Blitz began on 7 September 1940, children who had returned home or had not been evacuated were evacuated. By the end of 1941, city centres, especially London, became safer. From June 1944, the Germans attacked again by firing V1 rockets on Britain, followed later by also V2 rockets. 1,000,000 women, children, elderly and disabled people were evacuate from London.

This new way of attacking Britain carried on until the end of the war in Europe in May 1945. Message from a visitor to this page: " I found your notes on evacuation very helpful as I am writing my memoirs of my own wartime schooling and evacuation. Many people don't realise that most London children like myself spent much of the war sheltering in bomb shelters, and were only evacuated the year before the war ended (because of the new threat from the V2 rockets). Well done for your thorough research!" Alec Sir John Anderson (a member of the House of Commons and placed in charged of Air Raid Precautions or ARP) divided the UK into three areas: 1. Evacuation – areas where heavy bombing was expected. 2. Neutral – areas that would not need to send or receive evacuees. 3. Reception – rural areas where evacuees would be sent. When did Evacuation end? World War Two ended in September 1945, however evacuation did not officially end until March 1946 when it was felt that Britain was no longer under threat from invasion.

Surprisingly, even 6 months after the war had ended, there were still 5,200 evacuees living in rural areas with their host families. Many evacuees' had returned home long before March 1946. In April 1945, the Government began to make travel arrangements to return the evacuees to their homes when the war was over. By 12th July 1945, more than 100 trains had brought 54,317 evacuees home to London. BBC NEWS | UK | Child evacuees relive their WWII Child evacuees relive their WWII By Caroline McClatchey BBC News As the world remembers the 70th anniversary of the outbreak of World War II, three former child evacuees relive their experiences of strange lands and even stranger times. Imagine being six years old and it is a normal day at school - until, that is, you are put on a train with your classmates and teachers, destination unknown. Jim Wright wears his evacuation label with pride When you arrive in this place you never knew existed, you are handed over to strangers. You have no idea when you will see your family again.

It sounds unbelievable but during World War II, some 3.5 million people, mostly children, were evacuated from towns and cities to areas deemed safe from bombs by the authorities. When war broke out on 1 September 1939, 1.5m children, mothers, pensioners and hospital patients were relocated in just four days. It was known as Operation Pied Piper, the biggest mass movement of people in Britain's history. About 750,000 of those were unaccompanied children, and the same happened to 600,000 a year later. Jim Wright and his elder brother Jack were taken from Upton Park in east London to Llanhilleth in the Welsh valleys in the summer of 1940. Sixty children and a few teachers got off at the mining village and the seven-year-old Jim, who thought he was on a school trip, can remember seeing a "big green thing" ahead of him. The evacuation taught me about the value of money, family and love "I had never seen a mountain before," he said. He also thought coal came from a scuttle by the fire, not a "big hole in the ground".

The Carter family, who had children of their own, only wanted one boy but they relented and took both. Despite a lack of home comforts - the Carters had no gas, electricity or indoor plumbing - the 76-year-old knows just how fortunate he was. There are terrible tales of children kept in chicken coops and foster families stealing their rations, and "luck played a huge part in the game". Everyone thought it (the bombing) was going to be a lot worse than it actually was Military historian Taff Gillingham Service to mark WWII evacuations "Jack and I cried ourselves to sleep the first night but, with the family's love and kindness, our tears soon dried up." When Jim's father went off to war - he was an RAF bomber and was shot down over Switzerland in 1943 - his mother and youngest brother Peter joined them in Wales. The Carters took them in as well and the family never returned to London. "The evacuation made me who I am today. It taught me about the value of money, family and love," said the father-of-six.

"I am an evacuee and proud of it." Jim, who now lives in Corby, Northamptonshire, served in the RAF for more than 20 years but he counts his evacuation name tag as the "first medal he ever got". Doomsday predictions Military historian Taff Gillingham said Germany was busy concentrating on Poland at the start of the war, so more than a million evacuees had returned home by the middle of 1940. The second big evacuation came after Dunkirk and before the Battle of Britain, when the bombing focused on big industrial cities. London, Hull, and Cardiff were among the cities bombed "Everyone thought it was going to be a lot worse than it actually was. Everyone thought the aerial bombardment would kill 10,000 a day, but in practice the Luftwaffe didn't have enough planes to destroy a whole town, never mind a city." Mr Gillingham says some historians believe the mass evacuation was a waste of money but he believes it was the "right thing to do". "Seventy thousand civilians were killed in Britain during World War II and it would probably have been higher without the evacuations," he said.

"It also helped keep people's spirits up, knowing their children were safe." The evacuation was also an exercise in "nation-building". "No-one travelled about and so it brought people from all walks of life together. It brought the reality of poverty to a lot of people, while the poor saw another way of life." 'Prodigal son' Gordon Abbott was transformed from a "town boy to a country boy" at the age of seven. His story is a real boys' adventure of climbing trees, catching rats and collecting honey. An only child, he left Battersea in south London with his gas mask, some clothes and enough food to last a day. His whole school was marched to the station and eight hours later, he was in Bude, Cornwall. Although he was not distressed, he can remember children crying on the train, while others wet themselves because there were no toilets on board. Many evacuees, including Mr Abbott, will never forget the phrase "I'll take that one". Entire schools were relocated to the countryside Some reception areas were less organised than others, and when Mr Abbott arrived in Bude, he was lined up in a Methodist Hall and chosen by a farmer and his wife.

Like many evacuees, he came to refer to them as "auntie and uncle". "They were very established in the farming world. They were very strict but very kind and understanding." He became so immersed in his new life, he could not cope with London when he returned after the war. "I was very upset when I left. Auntie and Uncle were crying. The devastation was still visible in London and I was not used to the smoke and filth. My parents had separated and their way of life was alien to me." He returned to his foster family and persevered with a career in farming until he joined the police in 1959. The 76-year-old now lives in Milton Keynes with his second wife but he visits his extended family in Cornwall once a year, where he is greeted like the "prodigal son returning home". 'Accepted it' June Knight wanted to be evacuated to America on one of the "big boats", but she ended up in Warborough, Oxfordshire. In some ways I was resentful.

I was going to have violin lessons but all that fell by the way June Knight WWII evacuees: Your stories Ms Knight, 80, originally from Limehouse in east London, was billeted to a "very nice but very elderly couple" who earned a small amount for taking her in. Initially, the evacuees shared the village school with the locals but then they moved into the cricket pavilion. "I just accepted it. You were told to behave yourself and get on with it. In some ways I was resentful. I was going to have violin lessons but all that fell by the way." She neither loved nor hated her stay, which is ongoing to this day. Although she still lives in Warborough - her parents moved to the village when a bomb dropped outside their shop but failed to detonate - the former secretary still considers herself "a Londoner". "I never came here through choice," she said. Bookmark with:

Question: What was the code name of the World War II operation in which British children were evacuated from the cities to the countryside?
Answer: PIED PIPER